Body found in Seaside Oregon still unidentified, police release sketch

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Body found in Seaside Oregon still unidentified, police release sketch

SEASIDE, Ore. – A body found on the beach in Seaside earlier this month has not been identified, police said. Fingerprints taken during the autopsy did not match any in the system.

Police Chief Robert Gross said the male body was found Oct. 5. Detectives have asked the FBI and Interpol for their assistance to compare the body’s DNA and dental records with missing persons throughout the U.S.

Gross says the day the body was discovered, police noted a bicycle chained to a city pole half a mile from the scene. The bike remained chained to the pole and was seized by police on Oct. 14, Gross said.

There is no indication the bike is related to the body, but police are asking for information about who owns the bike, and who chained it to the pole.

Wife of missing cyclist still hopes for his return
A massive search effort has failed to find any trace of a Cycle Oregon volunteer

It has been seven weeks since 54-year-old Mark Bosworth disappeared from a small town in Southern Oregon while working as a volunteer for the Cycle Oregon bike tour.

“The most likely scenario is the cancer he battled twice before returned to his brain quickly and has claimed his life by now,” Bosworth’s wife, Julie, said Friday. “However, the girls and I keep hoping and wishing we will find him and don’t want to discourage anyone from any continuing efforts to find Mark.”

Bosworth, a mapping specialist for Portland Metro, vanished Sept. 16 from a campsite in Riddle for Cycle Oregon riders. His wallet, containing his credit cards and driver’s license, were found in a coat he left behind.

He went through chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2007. When it returned in 2009, he went through more chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. Before going on Cycle Oregon, he was complaining of headaches and made an appointment to see his doctor when he returned. During the trip, people reported he was acting strangely, sometimes standing alone and staring into space.

Since he disappeared, search-and-rescue teams have combed the countryside around Riddle, looking along roadsides, in farm fields, ditches, timber and in brush. Douglas County sheriff’s detectives have tracked down 250 tips from around the West Coast, mostly from people claiming to be psychics or people who saw an older man riding a bicycle, said sheriff’s office spokesman Dwes Hutson.

“Unless you step right on top of this gentleman, he’s going to be very hard to find,” Hutson said.

Last week, family, friends and complete strangers finished calling 4,400 hospitals around the country, as well as 500 churches around Oregon.

Nothing has turned up.

“I feel like we’ve fallen down a rabbit hole into a world where things just don’t make sense, but the love and compassion still operate,” Julie Bosworth said. “It’s like this alternative universe. People don’t just disappear. Picked up by aliens? That seems as likely as anything else.”

One new idea being discussed is organizing the same massive effort that called hospitals around the country, and contacting homeless shelters, she said.

In the first weeks, Julie Bosworth said she searched places she felt drawn to, certain she would find him.

She plans to return to work next week.

“I’m trying to walk a line where I never lose hope,” she said. “But there is reality, and the rest of life, too.”